


Gluttony

by Rosesdancinginmymind (orphan_account)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 20:41:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5758090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Rosesdancinginmymind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SwanQueenWeek Day 2 – Gluttony. TW for references to child abuse/neglect. SQ hurt/comfort/fluff. Apologies for any mistakes. I don’t own Once or its characters. Hope you all enjoy :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gluttony

Emma grins from ear to ear as she rings Regina’s doorbell. She’s been looking forward to tonight all week. Firstly, it’s date night which is always her favourite night of the week. Secondly, it’s buffet night at the pizza place in town. Emma loves buffets.

She always has.

When she was a kid she didn’t get taken out very often, if she did she wasn’t allowed to eat much or wouldn’t through fear of being too costly or inconvenient. In foster care, every little misstep made her go through the dread of being moved on to another home. There were some shining happier moments though like one home that she went to where every Friday night they would go to an all you can eat buffet and she was allowed to eat whatever she wanted.

No rules.

No restrictions.

She could eat without fear and sit at a table with the parents and other kids and feel like part of a proper family. It was a feeling that was far too fleeting in her childhood and one, that when it came, she tried to hold onto as much as she could.

Finally, Regina opens the door and Emma’s smile grows impossibly wider as she takes in Regina’s dark skinny jeans and soft grey sweater. She told her to dress comfy but even comfy Regina is drop dead gorgeous. “You look beautiful.”

Regina smiles softly at the compliment, “Thank you dear, so do you.”

“This is how I normally dress,” Emma points out.

“I know,” Regina replies as she leans across to kiss Emma tenderly before asking, “So what are we doing tonight?”

“Something I’ve loved since I was a kid,” Emma replies, “Buffet.”

Regina frowns slightly feeling queasy at the very thought. She does her best to mask it seeing Emma’s excitement, “Buffet?” she asks.

Emma nods, “Yeah some of the best meals I had growing up were at buffets. I love the atmosphere and the variety. I love you and I want to share this with you.”

Regina smiles, “You do?”

“Yeah,” Emma says, “Unless you want to go someplace else?”

Regina shakes her head. She’d like to go anywhere else but she doesn’t want to take away Emma’s excitement. She doesn’t want to be the reason that that little happy glow in Emma’s eyes fades so she replies, “No, I want to go. It’ll be fun.”

Once they get seated the waitress hands them their plates and Emma leaps up and over to the buffet. Regina watches as people buzz about the food piling their plates high and the thought makes her feel even queasier. She focuses on her empty plate as she tries to think of anything other than her mother’s voice in her ears.

Emma comes back with a plate full of food and a beaming smile on her face until she sees that Regina hasn’t moved, “Regina?” she asks softly, “Is everything okay? Why haven’t you got anything to eat?”

_“Are you really going to eat all of that food?” Cora questions as she sees Regina’s plate. Regina frowns as she looks down at her plate. It’s a grand banquet and the buffet tables stretch across one whole wall. There’s plenty of food for everyone and she didn’t think she’d taken that much, just a couple of pieces of chicken, some potatoes and a bread roll._

_It’s more than mother normally allows her telling her she has to stay thin and keep her figure. She does her best trying to suppress a shudder as she thinks of all of the days her mother has sent her to her room without food._

_“I didn’t think it was that much mother,” she replies._

_Cora scoffs, “Well it’s not so long as you want to stay a worthless peasant. I thought you wanted the people to love you but clearly I was wrong.”_

_At those words Regina frowns, feeling the sting of tears in her eyes and she looks down at her plate now with a sense of disgust. Her stomach flips and she hears the underlying meaning in her mother’s words – you’re not enough to be loved. With a sigh she sets her food aside and watches as her mother smiles cruelly at her._

Regina shakes her head at Emma’s question. “It’s okay…I…I’m not hungry.”

Emma frowns seeing right through Regina’s lie. She can see it in Regina’s eyes, that something deeper is going on. She’s known it since she suggested the buffet. The drive over here was near silent and she noticed the way Regina paled when she saw all of the food. “Regina, we can go somewhere else.”

“It’s okay Emma. Enjoy your food.”

“I’m not going to enjoy it if you’re sitting there with nothing,” Emma replies before meeting Regina’s gaze, “Regina you can tell me anything, if there’s something wrong then please tell me and maybe I can help.”

Regina nods half-heartedly before looking around the busy restaurant, “Not here,” she replies and Emma nods before taking Regina’s hand and leading them into a more private corner. There’s not as many people milling around here and it’s about as secluded as they’re going to get. She keeps hold of Regina’s hand as she asks again, “What’s going on?”

Regina sucks on her lower lip as she eventually replies, “I’m…I don’t really eat this much food…I was never allowed to indulge in this kind of gluttony. My mother didn’t let me see it as fun or enjoy food. She set a strict diet and she expected me to adhere to it. Whenever we went to feasts I wasn’t allowed to eat.”

“At all?!”

Regina shakes her head, “I was a lady. I wasn’t allowed to indulge in such pleasures. In her words, if I wanted the people to love me then I wouldn’t gorge myself like a peasant.”

Emma frowns wishing once more that she could go back in time and smack some sense into Cora. She hates the things Cora told and did to her daughter. She’s seen a lot of things growing up and heard all sorts of horror stories but god, Cora could easily rival all of them for the worst.

She sighs as she moves her hand to rub Regina’s arm reassuringly, “Regina,” she says quietly, “I will always love you no matter what and your size has nothing to do with it. If it makes you happy, you can eat what you want. If you want to indulge on sweets or just eat kale salad I don’t mind. Buffets like this are fine in moderation. You don’t have to go overboard but it doesn’t mean you can’t ever treat yourself. To me, Regina, you could be the size of the mansion or two inches tall and I would still love you because you’d be you.”

“You would?”

Emma nods, “Of course I would, to the moon and back, remember?”

Regina smiles as she replies, “And even further?”

“Even further,” Emma answers, “Your mother was a piece of work and she was wrong. The people who love you, love you for who you are not just what you look like on the outside. We eat well the rest of the week and treats are okay every now and then.”

“Is this sort of like your ‘I’ve had a salad so I can have a Mars Bar’ argument?”

Emma laughs, “Sort of. So, what do you say, want to give gluttony a try?”

Regina bites on her lip hesitantly before looking into Emma’s eyes and searching out the safety and love she finds within them. When she does she smiles before stepping closer to pull Emma in for a quick, yet tight, embrace. Emma smiles wrapping her arms around Regina as she asks, “Not that I’m ever going to complain about this, but what’s this for?”

“Thank you,” Regina replies, “For making me feel beautiful.”

“No worries,” Emma answers, “It’s easy because you are to me.”

They lock gazes again and move to kiss one another only to be interrupted by Emma’s tummy rumbling. Both women laugh and Regina kisses Emma tenderly as she says, “Okay, show me the way of the buffet.”

* * *

 

“Oh my god,” Regina groans as they walk slowly up to their bedroom. She swears she’s never eaten so much in her life. Emma filled her plate with fried chicken, mashed potato, pulled pork, croutons, carrots, gravy and dumplings. Afterwards they had dessert or as Emma dubbed it ‘the 12 scoop sundae’.

It was an immense amount of food and she knows her mother would no doubt have had a fit had she ever seen Regina eat so much but she doesn’t care. Tonight she forgot about her mother and her fears and indulged. It was wonderful. She feels exhausted now but she understands why Emma loves buffets so much. There was something so freeing and joyful about it all that she loved.

She kicks off her shoes and shrugs off her jacket before simply collapsing onto the bed feeling sated and tired. Emma collapses beside her rolling to kiss her lazily, “So, have I converted you to my ways of fast-food?”

Regina chuckles, “I wouldn’t go that far. I will admit that I enjoyed it.”

“I know,” Emma says, “You had this really happy smile on your face…plus you have barbeque sauce on your sweater.”

“I don’t even care,” Regina replies with a joyful laugh as she closes the distance between them to give Emma a slow, loving kiss. “Thank you.”

“What for?”

“For showing me the joy of buffets. I loved it and I love you.”

Emma grins, “I love you too…so do you want to go again next week?”

_Thanks for reading :)_


End file.
